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Topic: Pliers wielding nurse. (Read 978 times)

"Are you squeamish?" says she, "I am" says I, "Pity about that" says she and with a twist of he wrist out came the first pin(stainless?) from the finger."Why?" says you, "did they put pins in your finger"Well remember that sequence is important when you next slip a drill-chuck into the tailstock and press the motor-start button.As the best murder ballads have it, a warning take by me.Colm

I can feel your pain. Really. In my "fledgling" days of becoming a toolmaker, I was hammering a bearing into an aluminum housing, well...hammer/punch slipped severing the tendons clean in a finger. (Yep, should have used an arbor in a press. Won't make that mistake again..) during the surgery, they "wired" my tendons around the bone & tied the wire off at the top of the finger using what looked like a shirt button as a "washer". Was in a cast & splint for quite a while. Time passed & it was healing. Off the shop floor & into drafting... One day I caught the wire in a towel pulling it half way around my finger (not through) & freaked out, thinking I will need another surgery...

Visited my hand surgeon in his office & he asked to see the finger, casually holding my arm, he reached into a desk drawer & pulled out a small pair of needle nose pliers. Grabbed the end & it was out. Didn't even feel a thing.

Geez. I coulda' done that...

Seriously, we all think things like this won't happen in the "home" shop, but they do. Wear your safety glasses at ALL times, no loose clothing, jewelry, ETC. You should know the rules. (Read the manual..)

In my case, a lack of judgement & skill. My own fault.

Finger all better & no problems thanks to other craftsmen (in their fields).

Eighteen months after I broke my hip, I had the plate and screws removed, and was presented with a plastic bag with all the bits, that was 21 years ago, and it's still around the house somewhere. Took a bit more than a pair of pliers to get that out.Ian S C

Eighteen months after I broke my hip, I had the plate and screws removed, and was presented with a plastic bag with all the bits, that was 21 years ago, and it's still around the house somewhere. Took a bit more than a pair of pliers to get that out.Ian S C

Must have been odd to hear them working on you with the air impact wrench from the garage...!

Thanks all, for the comments. There is a little poetic-licence in the original post, there was no pain removing the pins. The embarrassment of needing so much hospital resources was the worst part.

I was fortunate to have so minor an injury, mostly due to a fairly slack round belt drive from the motor to the lathe (a Cowells. Just before I cocked-up I had clocked a second bearing block true in the four-jaw. Smugly satisfied with the result of the first, I'd left the boring -bar in place, almost a perfect storm.

At 59 this was my first broken bone, and six weeks inconvenience fades to nothing beside the result of a broken hip. In my day-job (pharmacy) it is the accepted wisdom that we rarely learn from another person's error so work is always checked by at least a second dispenser. Difficult to apply that process at home, but the horror of near miss is similar.Stay safe,Colm